THE FIRST Ismaili Centre in the United States has been inaugurated in Houston. Mawlana Hazar Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan V, the 50th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslim community, opened the centre on November 6.<\/p>\n
The event was attended by Houston mayor John Whitmire; Princes Amyn, Hussain, and Aly Muhammad; members of the US Congress; Texas legislators; and representatives of interfaith and civic organisations.<\/p>\n
The Ismaili Centre is a place of worship and a social and cultural space for Ismaili Muslims. The 150,000-square-foot facility, located on more than nine acres near Buffalo Bayou, joins six earlier Ismaili Centres in London, Vancouver, Toronto, Lisbon, Dubai, and Dushanbe. It is designed by architect Farshid Moussavi and landscape architect Thomas Woltz, and is built to LEED Gold environmental standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis building may be called an Ismaili Centre, but it is not here for Ismailis only,\u201d the Aga Khan said. \u201cIt is for all Houstonians \u2014 a place open to all who seek knowledge, reflection, and dialogue.\u201d Mayor Whitmire described the opening as \u201ca proud moment for the city\u201d and a \u201cstatement of unity, faith, and shared purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
The centre will function as a cultural, civic, and educational venue, hosting exhibitions, performances, lectures, and interfaith dialogues, and will also be used for the community\u2019s religious and social gatherings.<\/p>\n
Houston has a sizable Indian-origin Ismaili population, and the inauguration holds significance for the diaspora and communities in India.<\/p>\n
(With inputs from PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE FIRST Ismaili Centre in the United States has been inaugurated in Houston. Mawlana Hazar Imam, His Highness…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[144264,108590,12051,182730,49,978,727,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-576472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-aga-khan","9":"tag-diaspora","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-ismaili-centre","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-us-news","15":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115565938763343694","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}